Kim Jong Un has celebrated a new era of cooperation between North Korea and Russia, amid a visit to the country by a member of Vladimir Putin's administration.
North Korean state media reported on a meeting between Kim and Russia's resource minister, Alexander Kozlov, on Tuesday. According to the Pyongyang Times, the North Korean leader expressed to Kozlov his appreciation that "bilateral solidarity and cooperation has been growing closer and more intense in different fields since the conclusion of a new treaty between the two countries."
Over the past few weeks, both countries' leaders ratified the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, a document outlining expanded opportunities for collaboration in the realms of trade and security between the two isolated nations.
The treaty, unveiled during Putin's visit to Pyongyang in June, includes a promise to provide mutual military assistance using "all means" available in the event that either of them is attacked.
During his meeting with the Russian resource minister, Kim reportedly hailed the "new strategic level" that Pyongyang-Moscow relations had reached, and called for further cooperation in science, trade and technology in order to "mutually and powerfully propel the co-prosperity and development of the two countries."
The meeting coincided with a visit by a Russian trade delegation, led by Kozlov, to North Korea to take part in the 11th conference of the DPRK-Russia Inter-governmental Committee for Cooperation in Trade, Economy, Science and Technology.
Newsweek contacted the U.S. State Department for a response to the Russian delegation's visit.
The ratification of the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, as well as the meetings between the two countries' officials, come as evidence of North Korea's direct involvement in the Ukraine war continues to mount.
In October, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that North Korea had transferred troops to Russia to train alongside Moscow's forces. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel later said that the soldiers had "begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces," and were present in the Kursk Oblast, where Kyiv has continued to make sporadic advances since launching its surprise incursion in early August.
The number of North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia's Armed Forces is currently estimated at "over 10,000" by the State Department, though Ukrainian officials believe this figure could soon surpass 100,000.
In late October, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun said that North Korea would likely ask for assistance in furthering its nuclear weapons program in exchange for the troop transfer.
"There is a high chance that they would, in exchange for their deployment, North Korea is very likely to ask for technology transfers in diverse areas," Kim said, during a joint press conference with the U.S. defense secretary, "including the technologies relating to tactical nuclear weapons technologies related to their advancement of [intercontinental ballistic missiles], also those regarding reconnaissance satellite and those regarding [submarine-launched ballistic missiles] as well."
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